One day an Opossum who had gone to sleep hanging from the highest branch of a tree by the tail, awoke and saw a large Snake wound about the limb, between him and the trunk of the tree.
“If I hold on,” he said to himself, “I shall be swallowed; if I let go I shall break my neck.”
But suddenly he bethought himself to dissemble.
“My perfected friend,” he said, “my parental1 instinct recognises in you a noble evidence and illustration of the theory of development. You are the Opossum of the Future, the ultimate Fittest Survivor2 of our species, the ripe result of progressive prehensility3 — all tail!”
But the Snake, proud of his ancient eminence4 in Scriptural history, was strictly5 orthodox, and did not accept the scientific view.
1 parental | |
adj.父母的;父的;母的 | |
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2 survivor | |
n.生存者,残存者,幸存者 | |
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3 prehensility | |
Prehensility | |
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4 eminence | |
n.卓越,显赫;高地,高处;名家 | |
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5 strictly | |
adv.严厉地,严格地;严密地 | |
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